Posted on November 22, 2016
By Michelle Brunetti, PressofAtlanticCity.com
City officials have abandoned a plan to use dredge materials to build an embankment and public walkway along the Bay Avenue wetlands.
After hearing from residents who are opposed to the project, Somers Point officials have decided to look at other options for disposing of the dredge materials.
The project was billed as a way to reuse 11,000 cubic yards of dredge sediments from the creation of a transient marina near the city’s swimming beach at the south end of Bay Avenue.
About 30 people attended a meeting at City Hall on Nov. 12 to say they thought the embankment project would worsen flooding in their neighborhood and aggravate existing traffic and safety problems.
“Now, given their strong concerns … we have decided to explore other viable alternatives (for disposal of dredge sediments),” Mayor Jack Glasser said in a statement Tuesday. “Initiatives like these are about working with and improving our community.”
Consultants who developed the plan said it would get rid of invasive phragmites on upland areas along the wetlands and beautify Bay Avenue from East Groveland Avenue to Ocean Avenue with native plants and a walking path.
“I have got to give credit to City Council. They listened to us,” said David Hughes, a Warwick Avenue resident just off the curve where Bay turns into Ocean Avenue.
Hughes is chief financial officer of Shore Medical Center and a member of the Somers Point Business Association and the city’s Economic Development Board.
He said the project would have worsened flooding by trapping water that drains down from Shore Road in heavy rains. That’s the most common cause of flooding there, he said.
Because its sides would have been open, the embankment also would have forced water around its edges, worsening conditions for homeowners at either end, he said.
Water that came over from the bay also would be trapped there by the 4-foot embankment, he said.
Several Bay Avenue residents said the walking path would attract visitors, but there would be nowhere for them to park and no lighting to make the path safe at night.
Hughes said he went door to door after the meeting to talk with his neighbors who live at the north end of Bay Avenue.
“What you saw in the room was nothing compared to what was prepared to come out,” he said of the number of neighbors prepared to fight the project.
Consultant Jim Rutala, of Rutala Associates in Linwood, helped develop the plan along with Baker Engineering.
At the Saturday meeting, Becky Traylor, of engineering firm Michael Baker International, said the embankment would average 3 to 4 feet in height from the existing ground level, so it would have improved visibility for homeowners. They now contend with phragmites that can grow 10 to 20 feet in height, she said.
Traylor also said the project would improve habitat for wildlife by replacing non-native phragmites with native plants to provide more food and nesting opportunities.
But some residents said they believed the berm would create a problem for diamondback terrapin nesting, and they objected to how deep the berm would be in some places.
Traylor said it would range from about 10 feet in depth to about 80 feet at the Ocean Avenue end. She said it would not encroach on wetlands, but many residents were skeptical.
Rutala helped the city get $625,000 in National Fish and Wildlife Foundation grants to enhance the environment and provide for more resiliency in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.
The city first considered spraying the dredge materials on nearby wetlands, but the state Department of Environmental Protection would not allow that. The DEP is testing reuse on wetlands as pilot projects and wants to see the results of those before approving more, Rutala said.
The city then considered replenishing the state-owned dog beach on Ocean Drive between Longport and Ocean City, but the materials are not appropriate for that use, he said. They are a mix of 60 percent sand and 40 percent silt, while the state requires beaches be replenished with 90 percent sand, said Rutala.
The marina will be built with a $1.5 million National Boating Infrastructure Grant from the Department of Transportation, Rutala said.
The city will pay a 30 percent match on all the grants, or $500,000 more toward the marina and an additional $188,000 toward the reuse of dredge materials, he said.
Source: PressofAtlanticCity.com
